Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) will be hosting the inaugural South Africa Green Hydrogen Summit (SAGHS) at the Century City Convention Centre in Cape Town between the 28th – 30th of November 2022. The Summit showcases the country’s offering as a large-scale, low cost, world class green hydrogen production hub and total value chain investment destination.

South Africa is one of the founding members of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA) which seeks to promote continental green hydrogen cooperation. Senior delegations from the other founding members of the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance will also be invited to showcase their unique offering at the Summit.

The inaugural Summit aims to grow confidence in Green Hydrogen as a viable sector for strategic investment and government support in the country. The Summit focuses on:

• Bringing together role players, such as project sponsors, decision makers in government, financing institutions, international authorities, and academic institutions, to enable knowledge sharing, and most importantly, enabling an environment conducive to forging long-term working relationships;
• Concentrating targeted green hydrogen engagement events aimed at popularising the Green Hydrogen Economy and its potential in South Africa;
• Drawing lessons from other countries on their individual journey’s as it relates to building an economy around green hydrogen and decarbonisation;
• Drawing interest in exports and domestic utilisation underpinned by green hydrogen’s potential to combine South Africa’s mineral endowment with its renewable energy endowment to drive beneficiation and reindustrialisation.

The Summit builds on the opportunities identified during the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA) of 2021. One of the highlights of the symposium was South Africa’s emergence as a potential global exporter of green energy with major investment support from Sasol and Anglo-American giving boost to the country’s green hydrogen projects. Green hydrogen was identified as a “Big Frontier”, in the Country Investment Strategy, indicating that it represents both current and future growth and investment potential for South Africa.

The Summit officially kicks off on the 29th of November 2022 with welcoming addresses from Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, and the Minister of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, Minister Patricia de Lille. The Keynote Address will be delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The first day of the Summit will host a High-Level Panel facilitated by Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, with panellists from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), ACWA Power, SASOL, and AGHA Ministers & Special Envoys. The remainder of the day will host a number of breakaway sessions, which include: three panels, four technical sessions, and country presentations from Germany and the Netherlands.

The second day of the Summit, 30th of November 2022, will open with a Women in Green Hydrogen & Women in Energy Breakfast. The remainder of the day will continue to host breakaway sessions across four panels, four technical sessions, country presentations, and two training sessions on PtX (Power-to-X) for decision makers.

Source: Government of South Africa